Stuffed Boneless Turkey Breast

Roast Turkey Made Easy

A stuffed, boneless turkey breast is a delicious alternative to a whole roast turkey. They’re tender, juicy and way less trouble for the cook! Here’s why:

• Boneless turkey breasts cook relatively quickly and much more evenly than a whole bird – no worries about one part being overcooked while another is underdone.
• A boneless breast will take up far less oven space too, leaving room for side dishes and making planning your meal easier and more efficient.
• Boneless turkey breasts are easy to carve and make a beautiful presentation on your table.

How To Make A Boneless, Stuffed Turkey Breast

Our boneless turkey breast is rolled and stuffed with a moist and flavorful apple and cranberry stuffing and served with a sauce that’s richly flavored with apple cider and fresh sage.

If you don’t have a butcher that will debone a whole turkey breast for you, or, if you simply feel up to the challenge, it’s not that hard to remove the bones yourself.

The whole turkey breast we used for this recipe was about 6-1/2 lbs with the bone in. Once we’d removed the bones and tenderloins, we had a boneless breast that weighed about 4-3/4 lbs.

To ensure that your roast is moist and tender, it’s very important to leave the skin on, even the flap of excess skin at the neck. You can trim away some of the fatty thickness though.

Stuffed Boneless Turkey Breast

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Rolled and stuffed with an apple-cranberry stuffing and drizzled with a cider-sage sauce, this boneless turkey breast recipe is a terrific alternative to a whole roast turkey.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Prep Time: 45 minutes mins

Cook Time : 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Total Time : 2 hours hrs

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Ingredients 

• 1 whole turkey breast, 5-1/2 to 6-1/2 lbs, removed from the bone, skin left on (see notes)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

For the Apple-Cranberry Stuffing:

• 6 cups bread cubes, 3/4-inch, crusts removed
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon shallot, minced
• 1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
• 1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

For the Cider-Sage Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon shallot, minced
• 6 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
• 2 cups apple cider, divided
• 1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions 

Prepare the stuffing:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the bread cubes on a large baking sheet and place them in the oven until they are dry and crisp but not browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
• Place the apple cider in a small, microwave-safe bowl and heat on High for 1 minute. Stir in the dried cranberries and set aside to soften.
• Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat until melted. Add the shallot and sauté until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the celery, apple and rosemary and continue cooking until the apple is tender, 3 to 4 minutes longer. Season lightly with salt and pepper, remove from the heat and set aside.
• Using your hands, gently crush the bread cubes into smaller pieces (don’t worry if some of the cubes crumble into fine crumbs).
• Using a spatula to be sure you get all the melted butter from the bottom of the pan, add the celery-apple mixture to the bread, then add the cranberries and cider and stir to combine. Add the egg and 1/2 cup of the chicken broth and combine thoroughly. The stuffing should be moist but not soggy. If you feel it’s still a bit dry, add a little more chicken broth. Set aside.

Prepare the turkey:

• Increase the oven temperature to 375°F and position a rack inside a roasting pan.
• Lay the boneless turkey breast on a flat surface, skin side down. If the breast still has the tenderloins attached, remove them and reserve for another use.
• Cover the meat with two thickness of plastic wrap and pound the thickest portions with the flat side of a meat mallet until the breast is roughly the same thickness overall.
• Note: Our boneless turkey breast ranged in thickness from 1-1/4 to 2-3/4 inches. After pounding we ended up with an average overall thickness of about 1-1/2 inches.
• Season the turkey with salt and pepper and spread the stuffing over the breast to within 3/4 inch of the edge.
• Starting with the short side opposite the neck, roll the breast as tightly as you can without pushing too much stuffing out of the ends. Push any stuffing that does fall out back into the ends.
• Run a length of kitchen twine around the turkey lengthwise, tucking in the ends before tying. Tie crosswise lengths of twine around the roll at 2 to 2-1/2-inch intervals.
• Set the turkey, seam side down on the roasting rack, brush with melted butter, season with salt and pepper and add 3/4 inch of water to the bottom of the roasting pan.
• Roast the turkey until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the roast registers 155°F, 50 to 70 minutes. You may want to rotate the pan in the oven about halfway through the cooking time to ensure even browning. Once the roast is done, transfer to a carving board and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving.

Prepare the sauce:

• While the turkey roasts, make the Cider-Sage Sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallot and sauté until softened, 4 to 5 minutes.
• Add the sage and season lightly with salt and pepper. Stir in all but 1/4 cup of the cider and bring the mixture to a rapid simmer.
• Combine the cornstarch with the remaining 1/4 cup of cider, whisking until smooth.
• Add the cornstarch mixture to the simmering cider and cook, whisking continually, until thickened to a gravy consistency, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, transfer to a serving dish and cover to keep warm until ready to serve.

To Serve:

• Once the roast has rested, remove the ties and carve it into 1/2-inch slices.
• Arrange on a platter and drizzle with the Cider-Sage sauce. Pass the remaining sauce at the table.

Recipe Notes

Cranberry-Pomegranate Recipe Variation:

You can easily change the flavor profile of this recipe with just a few simple adjustments.

For the stuffing, omit the apple, add 1 tablespoon grated orange zest and replace 2 tablespoons of the chicken broth with pomegranate juice.

For the sauce, omit the sage, add 2 teaspoons of freshly grated orange zest and replace the apple cider with a combination of 1-3/4 cups pomegranate juice and 1/4 cup orange juice.

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